Moving into middle school: individual differences in the transition experience

Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, Apr 1998 by McDougall, Patricia, Hymel, Shelley

RESULTS

Preliminary Analyses

Factor analyses: Creating school adjustment composites. In an effort to protect against multicollinearity, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted to reduce the number of predictors considered. Specifically, the 12 self-report scales reflecting school adjustment (School Value, Perceptions of Teacher Support, Involvement in Class/School, Disruptive Behaviour, General Self-Worth, Math, Verbal and School Self-Concept, Loneliness, Peer Intimacy, Peer Group Integration, School Anonymity), as assessed at Time 1 (Pre-transition: Spring of grade 6) were subjected to a factor analysis (maximum likelihood extraction, oblimin rotation). Teacher evaluations of achievement and the Overall Transition Experience score were not included in this analysis, since these data were considered to be distinct and separate indices of adjustment. Three factors were extracted accounting for a total of 58% of the variance in the 12 adjustment scales.(f.2)

The first factor, Self-Concept (accounting for 23% of the variance), included each of the four self-concept domains assessed (factor loadings in parentheses): School (1.01), Math (.61), Verbal (.48) and General Self-Worth (.55). The second factor, Social Adjustment (accounting for 18% of the variance), included self-report indices of Peer Group Integration (.95), Loneliness (-.88), Peer Intimacy (.62) and School Anonymity (-.44). The third factor, School Attitudes and Behaviour (accounting for 17% of the variance), included self-reports of Class/School Involvement (.77), School Value (.75), Perceived Teacher Support (.71) and Disruptive Behaviour (-.71). Intercorrelations among these three factors were low to moderate (ranging from .17 to .40), suggesting that the factors represented distinct assessments of adjustment. Accordingly, three composite indices of adjustment were computed for each participant at both times of testing.(f.3) For each composite, scores on the original measures were first standardized across the entire group (within the given time of testing) and then summed. These unit-weighted composite scores (Self-Concept, School Attitudes/Behaviours, Social Adjustment) served as predictor variables, along with indices of Academic Achievement and Sex of student.

Primary Analyses

Overview. Of initial interest was the nature of responses students gave when asked directly about their transition experience. Accordingly, we began our analyses by examining the means, standard deviations and ranges of student responses to the items tapping beliefs about the transition experience. Next, utilizing two separate multiple regressions we examined the predictive and concurrent relationships between adjustment indices and student's own assessments of the transition experience in an effort to explore individual differences in the transition to middle school.(f.4) Predictor variables in each of the two simultaneous regression analyses included adjustment indices (Social Adjustment, Attitudes/Behaviour, Self-Concept, Academic Achievement) and Sex of Student. In the absence of any theoretical guides, we were unable to determine whether some predictor variables should be considered more important than others and hence, we employed a simultaneous regression strategy, entering all predictors on the first step and examining the total variance accounted for by the entire set of predictors, as well as the unique effects of each predictor (beta weights) when all other predictors were controlled. In each of the two simultaneous regressions, interaction terms (sex by each adjustment factor) were included on a second step to explore whether the relations between adjustment factors (predictors) and Overall Transition Experience might be different for boys and girls.